Other forms: craving, craved, craves
To crave is to want something so badly that your whole body asks for it. Crave sugar, crave attention, craving a cigarette.
It is bodily rather than merely wishful, which is why it is the standard word for addiction and for pregnancy. Craving is the noun and is used clinically. It also covers emotional need: crave attention, crave approval. Note that in older and legal English, crave means to beg formally — crave your indulgence — which survives in a few Scottish court formulas and nowhere else.
1verbcraveTo want something so badly the body asks for it.
“When I'm tired, I crave chocolate and salty crisps.”
synonyms: long for, yearn for
crave is a bodily wanting.
Also accepted in games: long for
Old English crafian meant to demand or ask as a right, from a Germanic root about demanding. The word began as a legal claim and became a physical hunger, which is a long way to travel.
Proto-Germanic
*krafjaną — to demand
Proto-West Germanic
*krafōn
Old English
crafian — to crave, ask, implore, demand, summon
Middle English
craven
English, today
crave
From Middle English craven, from Old English crafian (“to crave, ask, implore, demand, summon”), from Proto-West Germanic krafōn, from Proto-Germanic krafjaną (“to demand”). Cognate with Danish kræve (“to demand, require”), Swedish kräva (“to crave, demand”), Icelandic krefja (“to demand”), Norwegian kreve (“to demand”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA